SSS Wants To Lease Its Properties To Increase Revenues

The Social Security System (SSS) plans to lease out its property along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City to increase its revenues. The state-run pension fund manager for private sector workers wants the said lease to be on a long term basis.

SSS President Conrado De Quiros Jr. said that they want to lease their Hong Kong Sun Plaza property on a long term basis, Manila Standard reported. The leaseholder, he said, will have the option to lease it for between 10 and 20 years.

De Quiros also disclosed they are looking into a one-year timetable to lease out the said property. The agency is already in the process of publishing the invitation to bid, which they plan to release within September. They also intended to hire three fund managers, who would be handling P1 billion worth of assets each, before the end of 2016.

Instead of selling the property, he told Business World they are holding on to the property because of its strategic proximity to the Entertainment City. He expressed optimism that prices on the said property will eventually go up. The current agency management is leaving it to their successor to decide whether to finally sell the property.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that SSS wanted to lease the property as early as 2015 however, there was a failed bidding after Filinvest Land. Inc.’s failure to submit its lease bid on the HK Sun Plaza property and on an adjacent lot. Filinvest was the only company that purchased the terms of reference for the lease of the Roxas Boulevard property, which also housed an SSS branch.

Aside from the planned lease of the HK Sun Plaza property, the state-run agency is also into the selling of condominium units and housing lots seized from borrowers, who have defaulted from payment in their obligations from them. The SSS is also studying the selling of another property in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.

What do you think of the SSS' plans to lease its properties to increase revenues? Let us know in the comments section below.

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